Cost of Living: A Case Study of the United States, the Czech Republic and Ireland

Bc. Josephine Králová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The thesis is divided into two separate parts, the theoretical and the practical section. It examines issues of cost of living mainly from descriptive and analytical point of view. The descriptive part is considered as a first part of this thesis. In order to fully understand the notion of Cost of Living, the author approached the phenomena from several different points of view. Principles and concepts as well as the literature review are analysed in the first chapter, Chapter 1. It maps the topic from the beginning to the end. The second chapter is dedicated to the empirical part, which is divided into several sub-capitols. The theoretical as well as the practical part of the diploma thesis is focused on three chosen countries and its cities which were picked by the author. The United States of America, the Czech Republic, and Ireland were chosen for the first part of Chapter 1. Further on, Boston, Dublin and Prague were chosen for the analytical part as representative cities of these countries. The practical part is then divided into three research sections. First part provides a price analysis, which compares the price levels from different sectors in specific cities. Second part presents a regression analysis that examines CPI worldwide. It takes into account all OECD countries and extra three chosen countries from around the world. The final part consists of structured and partially electronic questionnaire with a help of quantitative analysis, where the author compares these cities and analyses it. Furthermore, the analytical part thoroughly analyses and examines the differences, influences and opinions of the cost of living in the countries. Further on, it also gives us the most recent picture of the prices and ideas in the sectors. The result of this thesis is to prove whether we can claim and complain about how expensive cost of living is, where we live and if somewhere else it is cheaper. The author examines the question if this is really the case and if this opinion is competent. Although, it is very hard to tell and there is no clear-cut conclusion about the issue, the author sums up the results to the comprehensible conclusion at the end of the thesis. In the conclusion, the results show where prices are the highest and lowest at the same time. Moreover, the research uncovers areas, which have to be investigated separately and which influence the cost of living the most, such as education for students in the United States of America or public transportation in Ireland. Generally, this work identifies both, the opportunities and obstacles that people face today in terms of cost of living.

Keywords

Cost of Living, Cost of Living Index, Consumer Price Index, Standard of Living, The Czech Republic, The Republic of Ireland, The United States of America

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 27. 11. 2017

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: Ing. Petr Procházka, MSc Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Master programme / odbor:
Economics and Management / Economics and Management